“The Board of Inquiry delivered a comprehensive report giving clear reasons for declining the New Zealand Transport Agency’s poorly conceived and badly put together proposal to build a flyover at the Basin Reserve,” Save the Basin Campaign spokesperson Tim Jones said. “The Board’s decision made it clear that a flyover was not an appropriate structure to build at the Basin Reserve.”

“Instead of accepting this decision, acknowledging the failure of its flyover plans and moving on to develop a better proposal in partnership with the people of Wellington and with community groups, the NZTA has chosen to continue pursuing its flyover plan through the courts,” Mr Jones said. “It seems that the NZTA’s wounded pride is more important to it than developing good transport solutions.”

On Radio New Zealand this week, Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee said in reference to the Basin flyover Board of Inquiry that “good process should not be stalled to save costs”. Clearly, he regards the Board of Inquiry as a good process, but the New Zealand Transport Agency does not. The Save the Basin Campaign thinks that the Minister should have instructed NZTA to stop obsessing over its failed flyover project, accept the decision and start working on an alternative solution that works for Wellington, rather than wasting more taxpayer dollars on an appeal.

“Wellington is a modern capital city that deserves sustainable, modern transport solutions that take account of a unique urban environment,” Mr Jones said. “It’s time that the NZ Transport Agency recognised that and stopped flogging a dead horse.”

Mr Jones said that Save the Basin would be carefully considering its detailed response to NZTA’s appeal once it had received the appeal documents.

Most transport policy discussions this election have focused on Auckland. So it was great to see that the Green Party has today released its Wellington transport policy.

As reported in the Dominion Post, the Greens’ plan is centred on a light rail system for Wellington, including light rail to the airport by 2025, and includes the retention of trolleybuses and the provision of new electric buses. There’s also money for cycleways and footpaths, and the funding comes from money National has earmarked for motorways. The plan is based on Generation Zero’s Fast Forward Wellington plan – another big tick for the effectiveness of Generation Zero’s transport lobbying.

Labour’s Phil Twyford is reported in today’s Dominion Post as saying that Labour will concentrate on funding public transport, specifically bus rapid transit. Wellington Central MP Grant Robertson, who like the Green’s Julie Anne Genter, has been a strong opponent of plans to build a Basin Reserve flyover, has said that “Labour is committed to building a 21st Century integrated public transport network for Wellington” and that “Labour will support evidence based solutions that reduce traffic congestion and integrate public transport improvements.”

This may have been a murky election campaign, but on transport, there are clear choices between parties that support sustainable transport options, and those – primarily National – that want a future of more motorways and continued adherence to failed and outdated transport solutions.

Save the Basin Campaign spokesperson Tim Jones says, “The Board’s decision confirms what Save the Basin and many other submitters have said all along. It’s completely inappropriate to build a flyover at the Basin Reserve, and the NZTA, Greater Wellington and Wellington City Council got it wrong when they refused to seriously consider alternative proposals.”

“So now it’s time to move on from the failed flyover plan and come up with a better solution. That doesn’t mean, as some local politicians have suggested, attempting to bundle a flyover proposal up with other transport proposals and trying to sneak it through as part of a package. It does mean developing a solution informed by genuine community engagement and participation – because, as the Board of Inquiry acknowledged, there are genuine non-flyover options that would avoid ruining the environment of the Basin Reserve.”

“New Zealanders’ transport behaviour is changing rapidly. Evidence shows that young urban New Zealanders are increasingly choosing not to drive. This means that old transport assumptions and outdated transport models can’t be trusted when considering future transport needs. So a low-cost interim solution that could later be made permanent is one approach that deserves serious consideration,” Tim Jones concluded.